1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to input/output devices and, more specifically, to a multi-touch integrated desktop environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multi-touch displays are becoming increasingly common in consumer devices. For example, over the past decade, desktop monitors and hand-held devices have incorporated multi-touch surfaces with which users can interact to provide input information to the underlying devices. One interesting aspect of a multi-touch surface is the ability to control multiple degrees-of-freedom. For example, conventional rectangle manipulations include translation, rotation, and scaling operations performed on a multi-touch surface by dragging, rotating, or expanding/contracting, respectively, one or more contact points. Thus, a user may interact with an application via a multi-touch surface by tapping, dragging, expanding, contracting, or rotating one or more contact points on the multi-touch surface. These operations are typically more efficient to perform on a multi-touch surface than with traditional input/output devices.
Typically, when a multi-touch surface is used within a desktop environment, the multi-touch surface replaces the input/output devices one would typically use with a desktop machine. For example, a traditional keyboard is replaced with an on-screen keyboard projected on the multi-touch surface, a traditional mouse is replaced with a multi-touch surface on the primary display or by a touchpad, and a stylus is added for inputting text on the multi-touch surface via software that recognizes handwriting.
One drawback to this conventional design approach is that multi-touch surfaces suffer from sensing resolution problems that can limit the precision of touch input. Consequently, actions such as typing on a projected keyboard or selecting fine features in a drawing application may be difficult using a multi-touch surface. Another drawback is that an on-screen keyboard lacks tactile feedback to the user and, therefore, users may not be as comfortable typing using the on-screen keyboard without the feeling of depressing each individual keystroke.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is a system that more optimally integrates the benefits of a multi-touch surface into a traditional desktop environment.